It is known to utilize a light beam, such as a laser beam, as a sighting aid for guns. Lasers are the preferred means of generating light beams for weapon sighting because they have comparatively high intensity and can be focused into a narrow beam with a very small divergence angle so they produce a small, bright spot on a target. If mounted properly on a gun, the laser projects a beam of laser light in a direction generally parallel to the gun's bore. When the light beam and bore are properly aligned, the bullet (or other projectile) will strike, or strike very close to, the location of the light beam projected on a target. Such laser sighting devices can be used to target a weapon when using live ammunition or to simulate the actual firing of a weapon whereby the laser beam strikes a target to show where a live round would land.
It was known to use a laser connected to a gun to generate a pattern of light, such as a circular pattern formed by multiple laser light beams with a single laser light beam in the center. The problem with this device is that the light beams were projected outward its an exaggerated angle. Thus, the device may have been useful for centering and aiming a gun firing a bullet, but did not replicate the spread pattern of shotgun pellets after being fired. Thus, such a device did not accurately frame a target with respect to where shotgun pellets would land. This was especially true the farther the target was from the device, since the farther away the target, the greater the shotgun pellet spread.